Review by C.J. Bunce

In the hiatus between Season 2 and last night’s Season 3 opener of Warehouse 13, only one question was pecking at viewers’ minds.  Why would Agent Myka Bering, played by Joanne Kelly, co-star and female lead of the show, leave after only two seasons?  Luckily for fans we don’t have to wait all season to find out.

Warehouse 13–the SyFy Channel series that expands upon the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the thoughtless government lackeys carted off the Ark in the final scene.  Okay, not that exact warehouse, but something bigger and better–think the nation’s attic meets the X-Files or the short-lived series The Lost Room.  Except with the X-Files you had monsters of the week, and here, like Friday the 13th (the Canadian TV series) or Ray Bradbury Theater, you have an artifact of the week–some seemingly mundane throwaway item that we learn in fact carries some otherworldly power, often causing or created by the famous event or person the artifact is tied to. 

Last night’s episode “The New Guy” started with all the regulars back in their stride (minus the missing Myka), with Pete Lattimer (Eddie McClintock) working a textbook case of the out-of-control, would-be artifact-of-the-week with Claudia Donovan (Allison Scagliotti).  This time the artifact is one of Jimi Hendrix’s guitars (hey, didn’t I see that in the NYC Hard Rock Cafe?), wreaking electric havok, only to be tamed by Claudia’s cool guitar skills, and a little extra playing after she gives it the purple glove treatment–despite being scolded by Warehouse leader Artie Nielsen, played by the top-notch character actor Saul Rubinek (who played my favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation villain Kivas Fajo).  A team of Pete and Claudia!  Great idea!  Even better, Claudia is now the promoted Agent Claudia, long removed from her character’s weaker slacker introduction in Season 1, she now is confident, large-and-in-charge of all Warehouse tech.

But then a rescued hottie flirts with our hero Pete, and he–ignores it.  What?  From there we are spun into uncertainty–like Pete and company, we need Myka back.  Pete is not the same.  The guy who Myka referred to as “Artie, it’s Pete, it’s a win when he doesn’t lick anything” is just not his normal hilarious self.  And as a viewer you start to wonder how grim the show will be without our reliable straight arrow Myka. 

Enter Steve Jinks, played by Aaron Ashmore (Smallville, Veronica Mars, In Plain Sight), an ATF agent who witnesses the strange Hendrix guitar antics, and Pete and Claudia’s resolution, but he can’t believe it.  Steve, who has a perceptive skill to know the difference between someone lying and telling the truth, is pushed away at the ATF and Artie taps him as Myka’s replacement.  Friendly enough, he still is no Myka, and worse yet, he doesn’t get Pete’s jokes.  And Pete drops some great one-liners in this episode.  Steve is now the new guy–a full team member and Pete begrudgingly brings him along to pursue the actual artifact of the week, a certain folio (“it’s not a book, it’s a folio”) of letters with popular lines of antiquity that are killing the people who read them–only these are not actual lines uttered by historical people, more like lines from a play.  Shakespeare?  Wait, Pete knows someone who can help, someone who knows all this “Walter” Shakespeare, the “Bird” of Avon gobbledygook.  Myka?

Everything finally comes together by the end, sort of, and we’re off to another season of sleuthing, with a surprise visit by H.G. Wells (Jaime Murray), who will soon be the star of her own ScyFy Channel spin-off, according to Warehouse actors.  Another interesting idea.  After two seasons Warehouse 13 is picking up steam–the cast is familiar now and play off each other well and with some new guest stars expected this season, including a Star Trek line-up of Rene Auberjonois, Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan, and our favorite Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner as the Warehouse doctor, we have some good TV to look forward to.

Day Three of this year’s Comic-Con was as big as ever. 

Some great panels, including a Young Adult novelist panels focused on alternatives to vampires, along with book signings and giveaways of ARCs (advance review copies) for books not published until the fall–a great perk at Comic-Con.  Larry Nemecek, Star Trek author and insider, led a packed room of Trek fans showing previously unseen photos and behind the scenes Trek information.  The Mythbusters had a line waiting of fans an entire 45 minutes after the show started.  The cast of Fringe signed autographs in the main area at their studio booth.

Some great finds on the floor including nice chats with Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek: TNG) and Marina Sirtis (Troi on Star Trek: TNG).

Elizabeth C. Bunce went all fangirl with Eddie McClintock, star of Warehouse 13 and Nicholas Brendan, who played Xander on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  These guys love to engage and are genre fans themselves.  Brendon has a recurring role on Criminal Minds.

Celebrities look like everyone else, especially in a crowd of 130,000.  If you’re lucky you catch a star moving incognito across the main floor.  We caught Anthony Stewart Head (our favorite librarian/watcher, Giles, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) who ducked away from his handler to snap a photo with Elizabeth on his way to a Merlin event.  Awesome!

Great costumes as usual.  Here is a great cross section of the crowd.  First up this stellar Jawa:

And a super Black Canary:

Here’s some great Starfleet jacket replicas from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan:

From The Incredibles:

And it wouldn’t be a Con without some Klingon warriors:

One more day then the countdown starts again for next year’s show!  Next week I’ll run down the best and worst costumes at Comic-Con this year.

C.J. Bunce

Editor

borg.com

Review by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Everyone here at borg.com is a loyal fan of Warehouse 13, and we eagerly waited for Season 3 with excitement and just a *leetle* bit of anxiety (Will She or Won’t She? regarding a return for Joanne Kelly, after Myka quits in a…well, to tell you the truth, we can’t really remember why she quit, but we’re pretty sure it had something to do with H.G. Wells and a pitchfork). Thank goodness, all that uncertainty was put to rest by the season premiere (July 11, 2011, “The New Guy”) and a Comic-Con confession by Eddie McClintock (Agent Pete Lattimer) that the whole Myka quitting drama was just a ratings stunt (whew!).

Ahem.  But while that got our hackles up just a little, that maneuvering did make room for potentially interesting additions to the cast, notably “New Guy” Agent Steve Jinks, as well as priming audiences for larger-scale storylines.  As we mentioned in our review earlier this year of the Leverage premiere, raising stakes for your characters and creating bigger, more meaningful plotlines is usually a good thing. And bless their hearts, Warehouse 13 gave it their all this season.  From turning our beloved Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall, The Dead Zone) into a maniacal supervillain bent on exacting revenge from… Captain Janeway? (Kate Mulgrew, Star Trek Voyager) (Wait a minute–what?) to throwing Claudia at poor Agent Jinx in an over-the-top BFFE crush that only the writers really understood, to a literally explosive finale involving yet another reincarnation of series favorite H.G. Wells (this one presumably the last, as Jaime Murray is now a regular on Ringer… although with H.G. Wells and Warehouse 13, you never can tell).

By now you may be thinking that’s a lot of balls to juggle–even for the W13 gang–and you’re right.  It got a little hard to follow, and there were some missteps that took the series away from everything it had always done so, so right: the punchy camaraderie of the core cast, and the zany artifact hijinks that delight demented history buffs everywhere.  Something seems to have fizzled in the brilliant, squabbling-siblings chemistry between Myka and Pete, and even the artifacts got a little strained, having me occasionally roll my eyes instead of giggle maniacally.  I also found myself a little frustrated with some of the world building, as the addition of Kate Mulgrew as Regent-slash-Mom Jane Lattimer expanded the role and history of the Regents.  Case in point: There is already a thriving network of Warehouses, so what’s with this super-secret Regent Vault?  You need a better Warehouse for even worse artifacts?

Yeah, yeah, yeah… but because I do love this show and all its wackiness (that’s, by the way, meant to be praise here) I’m going to go on the record as saying I think all of that is just growing pains.  It’s Season 3–time to spread wings and see what happens when you leave the nest, and there are bound to be some bruised feathers.  And, to be sure, there were some standout moments this year. As Warehouse hacker-turned-techie-turned-trainee-turned-full-fledged-agent Claudia Donovan, Allison Scagliotti proved her mettle again and again this season, as her role was expanded in almost every episode (note to producers: Scagliotti is brilliant, but let’s remember this isn’t The Claudia Show), and although I personally didn’t feel we saw enough of Agent Jinks to share in the pathos of his death (or, um, potential undeath?  But we’ll have to wait for Season 4 for that!), Scagliotti managed to single-handedly carry the emotional weight of that entire plot thread, and she did so completely convincingly.  I almost thought I knew Jinksy enough to miss him, too.

The finale itself (the Sept. 26, 2011 two-parter “Emily Lake/Stand”), particularly the last act, was splendidly zany in the best W13 tradition–from a deadly chess game-slash-guillotine you have to cheat to beat, to a perversely-timed acting-up of random artifacts, to a startling and unexpected fate for mysterious Warehouse guardian Mrs. Frederick (which opens up marvelous possibilities for Claudia for next season), to the gutsy, glorious decision to destroy the whole warehouse, Search for Spock-style… I’m finding myself all geared up and ready for Season 4!  Only now I know all my gang is still right where they should be (well, minus Mrs. F and her iconic beehive–not, of course, to be confused with the other iconic beehive, the one from ”Queen for a Day” that nearly destroyed Pete’s ex-wife Amanda Lattimer’s wedding  [Jeri Ryan/Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager, if you're still keeping track of the crossovers!] wedding).  Wait.  Gotta catch my breath there.

Anyway, as mildly disappointed as I was with some of this season, it’s still Warehouse 13, which is still more fun than almost anything on TV, and my disappointment is merely a sign of how wonderful the show truly is–anything that can inspire fans to feel invested in the fates of the characters is doing pretty much everything right.  And I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how Season 4 can annoy me, too!

P.S.  We loved chatting with Saul Rubinek at Comic-Con this year…

Finishing up our speculation of a future James Bond that began here yesterday, we’ve got two actors who would be good picks, and who are probably not obvious choices for the super-spy shortlist.  These picks are for an older vs a younger Bond, figuring an actor who can look 40-45 is probably in the ideal range.  Then again, Roger Moore played Bond at age 46 and 58, so there really doesn’t need to be any age limit on choosing a good actor to play Bond.  First up, Paul Blackthorne, followed by Jason Isaacs.

Paul Blackthorne may be best known for his portrayal of wizard Harry Dresden in the short-lived but excellent TV adaptation of Jim Butcher’s novels, The Dresden Files.  Blackthorne has had his share of “guest star of the week” appearances on TV shows such as Medium, Monk, Burn Notice, Leverage, Warehouse 13, and White Collar.  If there is any reason he might not get selected in the future as James Bond it is because he is primarily had TV roles, but he is only 42, with plenty of time to get some movies behind him.  And besides, Pierce Brosnan didn’t do much that was notable before GoldenEye other than Remington Steele.

Blackthorne is a British actor that has honed his American accent so well that you would never know his British background.  If the Broccoli family continues with actors like Daniel Craig down the line as Bond, Blackthorne would fit right in.  And if they want him to play up the Brit-speak he could easily play a Bond of the Sean Connery or Timothy Dalton variety.  In fact, Blackthorne looks like a young Connery.  All that aside, as Harry Dresden we got to see Blackthorne as a versatile actor, the role itself a bit X-Files, a bit cop drama, a bit Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  He’s fun to watch and a likeable actor.  And he looks the part.

Forty-eight year old British actor Jason Isaacs may be most famous for his portrayal as the sniveling, white-haired wizard Lucius Malfoy (Draco’s dad) in the Harry Potter movies.  But in this year’s BBC/public television Masterpiece Mystery series Case Histories, we get to see Isaacs in a more down to Earth role, as a soldier turned cop turned private investigator.  More than anything else, Isaacs comes across as a very cool character, the kind of cool required of Bond, with a fair amount of self-effacing scenes that show his capacity for some good humor, something we haven’t seen so much of in recent Bond portrayals.  Maybe it is time to see how an older Roger Moore type Bond would appeal to fans?

Isaacs also has had a fair number of big screen roles, besides the Harry Potter films, including DragonHeart, Event Horizon, Armageddon, Soldier, Black Hawk Down, Resident Evil, and a lot of voice-over work–he’d have the sound of Bond down pretty well, too.  And like Rufus Sewell and Paul Blackthorne, he sort of has that British renegade agent look about him.  And he’s a dead ringer for Timothy Dalton.

So that’s just three recommendations.  Any others?

C.J. Bunce

Editor

borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

TV tie-ins need to achieve a few basic concepts to be successful.  First, they need to capture the feel and voice of each main character and do it quickly.  Second, they need to skip over the setting and world building, or at most, give the reader the minimum necessary information to understand the world of the TV series being adapted, as adaptations tend to appeal to fans of the show who just want more.  Third, the adaptation should take you to new places or throw the characters into new circumstances that are limited by the TV medium, primarily because of a the short time period of each episode and budget constraints.

For an adaptation of the SyFy Channel’s Warehouse 13, here Greg Cox’s Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever, to hit the first mark of success, this means first and foremost that it reflects the brother-sister relationship (aka antics) between agents Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering.  That we see the actor Eddie McClintock speak with every Pete line and the actress Joanne Kelley speak with every Myka line.  It means that Pete gets to enjoy everything about being a Warehouse 13 agent that is cool.  That we can see Myka’s eyebrow raised every time Pete opens his mouth.  It means that Artie needs to be gruff and smart, that Claudia needs to be hip.  That Artie brings in trivial details of tangent cases involving artifacts, especially when it is the most inappropriate and time is of the essence.  That Claudia drops pop culture references with each breath and enjoys her own generational battle with Artie.

Step 1?  Check.

For the second step, getting us right into the action and story, writer Greg Cox does quite well, giving readers new to the Warehouse only what is really needed to get to the heart of these characters.  We get a few visual descriptions and he lets the catchy dialogue do all the rest.  His best work here is for the thoughts of Pete Lattimer.  With each line uttered you see the line being voiced by Eddie McClintock.  Lines like “How come Artie never sends us to All-You-Can-Eat Cookies instead?” and lying to Artie via the Farnsworth video pre-cell phone.  And he lets Myka save the day more than once, entering the frame to save the day with her Tesla electric gun.

Step 2?  Check.

And for the last necessary element of a good tie-in, Cox hits the ball out of the park.  Claudia and Leena are wading through the endless Warehouse and dozens of new artifacts are revealed.  We get to see one artifact create an earthquake in New York City’s Central Park.  And we learn that the Warehouse owns a certain brilliant red Fokker DR-1 triplane owned by the Red Baron, and Artie and Claudia get to fly it and use it to save nearby Badlands town Univille from an escaped thunderbird–that itself was released from a totem pole.  Stuff that would be expensive to create in special effects, and scope outside any kind of television production budget.

Step 3?  Check.

Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever is the first adaptation of Warehouse 13 in print.  In the afterward Cox says he wanted to write an adaptation of Warehouse 13 when he first saw it on TV.  Who wouldn’t?  The TV series only scratches the surface of dealing with all the strange and cool artifacts throughout history that could have their own episode.  Here, this means tracking down and putting together for the first time since the Civil War the white gloves of Red Cross founder Clara Barton.  It means finding the cutlass of Anne Bonney the pirate–all before too much blood is spilt.  Cox includes dropped references to such great items that could have their own show, like Reagan’s jelly beans, Van Gogh’s ear, the seventy-six trombones, Harriet Tubman’s thimble, John Brown’s body, and the original grapes of wrath, and once found, getting to decide what does and what doesn’t end up in the Dark Vault of the Warehouse.  We also get to see some Rube Goldberg-esque mayhem in the Warehouse when a certain metal pot used as a hat that was once owned by Johnny Appleseed spills some apple cider off the top of a shelf.

Greg Cox is one of the go-to guys for TV series and movie novelization tie-ins and he makes writing the Warehouse look easy.  He has previously written novelizations of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, CSI, Star Trek, Farscape, The Green Hornet, Roswell, Underworld and Xena: Warrior Princess. 

While Warehouse 13 the TV series is on hiatus, the novelization is a good mid-season alternative to keep interest in the characters of the show.  Fans of the series will be able to keep up with all the references in Cox’s book and afterward feel like they watched the equivalent of a TV movie special.

Greg Cox’s Warehouse 13: A Touch of Fever was released in June 2011 and is available in mass market paperback and lists for $7.99.

Last night the Syfy Channel premiered a new show documenting its 20 years of bringing science fiction and related programming to cable TV.  The Syfy Channel 20th Anniversary Special chronicles the key landmarks of the channel going back to its inception in 1992 as a network of mostly reruns of classic sci-fi series like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits and the original Star Trek, as well as collecting and expanding upon series that didn’t make it on other networks, like Sliders and Andromeda.  The 2-hour show is a great way to reminisce about all the good–and bad–TV that has sucked you in, featuring commentary by series creators and cast, and narrated by Lois and Clark star Dean Cain.

Actors Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Michael Shanks discuss the first big hit for the network originally called the Sci Fi Channel: the Stargate franchise, including Stargate SG-1, and spinoffs Stargate Atlantis and Stargate Universe, as well as the made-for-TV movies.

Then there were early series that didn’t last long, like USA Network series that moved to Sci Fi, like Good vs. Evil, The Invisible Man, Welcome to Paradox, and Mission Genesis.

Ben Browder and Claudia Black chat about the four seasons of the Australian production, Farscape, the next big series for the Sci Fi Channel.  The renaissance of science fiction fans fighting for a series to return occurred with Farscape, resulting in Brian Henson bring a 4-hour mini-series event to round out and tie up the loose ends of the series.

Sci Fi/Syfy also has had a long run of great, often Emmy Award-winning, standalone mini-series, including Dune, Taken, Earthsea, The Triangle, Riverworld, the brilliant series The Lost Room, fairy tale retellings like the Zooey Deschanel vehicle Tin Man, Alice, and Neverland. 

Creators of the more bizarre part of the Sci Fi/Syfy Channel, like Roger Corman, discuss the network’s infamous, crazy-titled Saturday Original Movies, including zany shows like Alien Apocalypse, Snowmageddon, Mega Paranha, Sharktopus, Pteradactyl, Jersey Shore Shark Attack, Piranhaconda, Frankenfish, Swamp Shark, Dinocroc, Supergator, Megasnake, Boogey Man, Triassic Attack, Swarmed, and Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon.

The next big break for the network was the mini-series Battlestar Galactica, a remake of the 1970s TV series that was very popular and prompted an ongoing TV series starring Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonald, and a spinoff called Caprica.  The special includes insight from actors Jamie Bamber, Katee Sackhoff and Alexandra Torressani, and producer and long-time sci-fi writer/producer Ronald D. Moore.

More recently the Syfy Channel has packed its line-up with reality TV shows, including the successful Crossing Over with John Edward, Haunted Collector, Ghost Hunters, Face Off, Paranormal Witness, Destination Truth, Scare Tactics, So You Want to be a Superhero, Total Blackout, Collector Intervention, and Hollywood Treasure.

Actors Saul Rubinek, Eddie McClintock, and Allison Scagliotti discuss the success of the sci-fi/steampunk series, Warehouse 13.  Actors Neil Grayston, and Colin Ferguson discuss the long-running series Eureka, and producer Shawn Piller and actors Eric Balfour and Lucas Bryant discuss the current hit series Haven. 

Actors Sam Witwer and Kristen Hager discuss the monster mash-up series Being Human.  Anna Silk discusses her hit series Lost Girl.  And the series Alphas and Sanctuary are also highlighted.

What’s next for the Syfy Channel?  The Special previews new series Continuum with star Rachel Nichols, Defiance starring Angel star Julie Benz, and a new Battlestar Galactica made-for-TV movie, Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome. 

All in, the Special is a great way to be reminded of so many great TV series, and also remember all the series you might have thought originally ran on the network, like Babylon 5, Lexx, SeaQuest 2032, and at least one of the Star Trek series.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Last Monday, January 21, 2013, The Following premiered on the Fox network. It’s a dark, bloody crime drama from Kevin Williamson, creator of the Scream franchise, Dawson’s Creek and The Vampire Diaries.  It’s the Scream franchise that might come to mind if you check out the premiere on Free Per View before tonight’s episode “Chapter Two” airs.  Expect some horror movie jumps and startling revelations as well as a little more than you might see as far as crime scenes from other series (although not a lot more than what you might have found on something like TV’s Medium when it still was on the air).

The big draw for The Following is the series star, Kevin Bacon.  You might also have checked out the pilot if you were a fan of Maggie Grace, star of the Taken film series, The Fog remake, and Lost, the TV series.  If you’ve missed the original Law and Order, you might be happy to see the return of Annie Parisse in an ongoing role beginning with tonight’s episode.  And if that weren’t enough, you might think you’re watching Warehouse 13, Veronica Mars, Smallville, Lost Girl and In Plain Sight’s Aaron Ashmore as Agent Michael Weston–but you’d be wrong.  Turns out Aaron has a clone, twin brother Shawn Ashmore.  (And hey, don’t TV writers watch TV?  That’s at least the third Michael Weston on TV right now).

Spoilers ahead.

If you’re immune to TV violence by now and can get past corpses with missing eyes and blood-spattered crime scenes ad nauseam, the real-life crime investigation pacing is pretty well done. Kevin Bacon is solid but maybe under-utilized in his role as an alcoholic has-been, kicked aside expert pulled out of retirement to help locate escaped serial killer Joe Carroll, played by a creepier than we’d like to see James Purefoy.  What would probably be more fun to watch is if the creators swapped roles for Bacon and Purefoy–but maybe some of that lies ahead in the unfolding plot.  Bacon is pretty much a sure thing–he always has great performances and usually takes on interesting parts, having key roles in Apollo 13, X-Men: First Class, A Few Good Men, and even Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Animal House, and Hero at Large, and of course his breakout role in Footloose.  So it is really just good to see him starring in an ongoing series.

But if you watched the premiere because you thought it was going to star Maggie Grace (as we did), prepare to be disappointed.  Let’s just say she doesn’t have much of a future in The Following.

Shawn Ashmore is the next standout from the premiere.  He’s engaging and should be a good contributor to the series, as should Natalie Zea as serial killer Carroll’s ex-wife.

It’s the premise that is only introduced at the end of the first episode that will need to snap together quickly for the series to take off.  The idea is hundreds of serial killers band together to cause mayhem under the cult-like charisma of Purefoy’s killer, returned to prison at the end of the pilot and taunting all the agents who he alluded.  Is this role too close to The Silence of the Lambs’ Hannibal Lector?  And the serial killer’s motives are all derived from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, a plot we already watched last year in the big-screen film The Raven.  For the show’s sake, hopefully they will be able to move beyond that premise.  But if Fox can make a series like Prison Break last four seasons, they can probably do anything.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

After a crazy day of an insane volume of fans storming Bartle Hall in Kansas City Saturday for the biggest Planet Comicon event in more than a dozen years of events, it seemed like everyone came back Sunday for Day Two with aisles jam-packed again.  And for fans of all things borg like us, it was a banner day, meeting up with the original Bionic Woman herself, Lindsay Wagner, and the current writer on Dynamite’s Bionic Man series, Aaron Gillespie.

First up–Bionic Man cosplay.  The idea was inspired by my own large-sized action figure as a kid.  Originally planned by DW and me for SDCC 2012, it seemed a great fit for a borg.com tie-in, too.  Always looking for something original for other fans to enjoy, we’d never seen anyone re-create Steve Austin, the Bionic Man, at any convention ever, or posted online anywhere.  As the idea developed we decided it needed something more–and we moved from the character to the 1970s action figure itself.  With bionic eye, inserted arm circuitry, a pair of classic red and white striped Adidas Dragons, the classic red track suit, and the key identifier–the patch that was used as the official fan club badge and stuck on the chest of every Bionic Man action figure, which makes sense for the toy but would never make sense on the show–we had all but one thing left.   Decades ago you could find plastic hair at costume or theatrical shops but go searching and you’ll come up empty.  So we searched for full face masks that could be altered and came up with a JFK mask that could be cut and repainted, which seemed to do the trick.  Add some spirit gum (which may never ever come off my face) and temporarily lose the goatee, we found contact lenses from a UK retailer, made the patch from transfer paper using Web images and interfacing, and temporary tattoo material, and we have the Six Million Dollar Man large-sized action figure.  We got some good reaction to it at the Elite Comics Halloween event last year, and when we saw Lindsay Wagner as a guest of this year’s Planet Comicon it was obvious I was going to wear it to the show.

Lindsay Wagner and CJ Bunce cosplay bionic action figures

This past week I concocted another thought–I wonder if anyone has ever enlisted the help of an actual actor as part of a cosplay project for the character that actor portrayed?  So I tracked down (no pun intended) a blue track suit to match the later version of the Bionic Woman action figure and with DW’s speedy patch work we had an outfit for Ms. Wagner.  Would she go for it, and could I ask her without being one of those pushy, annoying fans?  As I’d hoped, Ms. Wagner lit up when she saw me at the opening of today’s show (she seemed to really like the bionic eye) and was more than happy to snap a few photos wearing the Bionic Woman action figure outfit–and the best thing was no plastic hair was needed for her as the original figure had “life-like” hair.  Win!   Thanks, Lindsay!  She was a gracious participant in my plan and I am in her debt.  And we got to chat with her about her role on Warehouse 13 on the Syfy Channel–she’ll be back again this next season!

I had hoped to meet up again with Bionic Man writer Phil Hester but he had to cancel his appearance this year.  I mentioned that to long-time friend of Phil, Ande Parks (one of my favorite Green Arrow creators), and he mentioned that fellow Iowa native Aaron Gillespie was a surprise addition to the Con, so I tracked him down through the help of comic book writer Dennis Hopeless.  I had a great chat with Aaron about his series. 

borg.com editor CJ Bunce and Bionic Man writer Aaron Gillespie at Planet Comicon 2013.

We also attended a novel writers panel moderated by Ande Parks with borg.com writer Elizabeth C. Bunce as one of the panelists.  A great discussion of the process behind writing novels!

Novel writing panel at Planet Comicon 2013.

And of course, more cosplayers in cool costumes crossed the floor Sunday.

E.C. Bunce and Kate McCormick in 1880s TARDIS Polonnaise bustle gown.

Doctor Who was the biggest theme again today and we caught this excellent red borg Dalek speeding through Artists’ Alley:

Dalek at Planet Comicon.

Finally, my favorite costume of the show, this excellent Predator!

Predator at Planet Comicon 2013.

And continuing my self-proclaimed status as the world’s biggest Green Arrow fan, I kept up my decade-long tradition of asking artists to create their take on Green Arrow and Black Canary, whether or not they have drawn them before.  Dream Thief artist Greg Smallwood created an awesome piece for me–I love his classic Green Arrow and the action from Black Canary!  Here is a pic of Greg with the art.  Thanks, Greg!  I will post a better view of the work later this week with another piece I commissioned at the show.

Dream Thief artist Greg Smallwood at Planet Comicon.

Congrats to Chris Jackson for another great show.  It was great seeing William, Justin, Shawn & Christina, Greg H., Damont, J.P., Freddie, Matt, Chris, Todd & Maria, David M. & Jenny, Jai, Diane, Kevin, Dayton, Ande, Todd S., Laura & Scott, Neal & Mrs. A., and Howard, and meeting Greg S., Ant L., James G., Matt, Katie, John, Charlotte N., Dennis H., Amanda, Lindsay, Adam, and Aaron G.  Thanks to all the new friends we met, all the folks stopping me for photos with the Bionic Man, and everyone who visited me and Elizabeth C. Bunce at Booth 545!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

When we last left Warehouse 13 at the end of Season 3, Saul Rubinek’s Artie had turned evil, resulting from a psychotic episode caused by an astrolabe.  He killed Leena (Genelle Williams) and was attempting to use a dagger to open a jar holding the deadly Chinese Orchid–the deadliest artifact in Warehouse 8–a poisonous flower that would unleash an epidemic that could wipe out half the population of Earth.  Claudia stabbed Artie, attempting to remove the spell that changed him.

At the beginning of Season 4 the ”sweating sickness” is moving across Europe.  Pete’s mom Jane Lattimer (Kate Mulgrew) sets Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) and undead Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore) on a journey into Artie’s labyrinthine Warehouse-world brain, using an artifact owned by Sigmund Freud.  Lindsay Wagner’s Dr. Vanessa Calder appears to them and warns them to leave.  Elsewhere James Masters plays a professor named Sutton, an expert on the Count of St. Germaine–who is supposed to help Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) save the world after they first visit the elegant home of antique collector Charlotte (Polly Walker).

For fans who like episodes focusing on the sleuthing of Pete and Myka, you’ll be happy with this new episode.  And guest star James Marsters, who Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans knew well as Spike, is in prime form with his guest role.  Look for some surprise return characters from past seasons to show up, too.

Will Artie live?  Will they save the world?  What is James Marsters doing here?  Why wait?  You can watch the entire Season 4 premiere episode “A New Hope” now for free here.

The rest of the TV viewing world?  They get to watch the season premiere Monday, April 29, 2013 on the Syfy Channel.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

By Jason McClain (@JTorreyMcClain) in San Diego

In contrast to an upcoming post about Concrete Volume 1: “Depths”, I saw the magic of work on display Saturday at Comic-Con.  I attended three panels and they all gave me a glimpse of those special relationships that develop between co-workers.  From Matt Smith calling Steven Moffat “Moff” and Steven “Fat” telling Matt that he’ll be dying soon (on Doctor Who), you could tell a bond had developed.  The Being Human panel featured a question from an audience member named Audrey and that led Sam Huntington to comment that was his daughter’s name.  Then came a whole riff on whether or not this was his daughter time-traveling from the future, and then when Sam Witwer was on the other end of Audrey’s question, eventually Meaghan Rath dropped the mic and left the stage as it was one of many questions directed Sam W.’s way.  The smiles back and forth between those three and the continual riffing revealed how close they were.  However, neither came close to meeting the emotion of the Warehouse 13 panel.

(I so wish I had photos to share with you of Warehouse 13, but my phone died.  I would have looked to the ceiling, clenched my fists and yelled, ”PHONE!” but I didn’t want to interrupt the panel.)

The first emotion – excitement.  The panel started out like any other with introductions of the participants.  When the moderator came to Eddie McClintock, I didn’t see him up on stage because he ran up one of the aisles of the Indigo Ballroom as a human version of a t-shirt cannon.

The next emotion – mischievousness.  Apparently Eddie likes to tweet.  So, as the panel starts, Eddie has his fingers working furiously on his phone while Joanne Kelly tries to snatch it from him.  The moderator asks Saul Rubinek a question as the battle for the phone comes to a head and Joanne wins and slides it down the table to prevent Eddie’s distraction.  The question goes unanswered as the phone takes center stage and Jack Kenny starts to narrate the visions of the photos that he “sees” and a callback to an earlier Cialis reference.

The last emotion – sadness.  Now, this isn’t a solemn or grieving sadness, but rather the sadness that comes with saying good-bye.  Every good-bye has a tinge of sadness as the time we share with those we care about nears its current end.  There will be a tomorrow in the not too distant future, but many days of joy are forever left in the past.

It was the last Comic-Con for the cast.  The last six episodes for Eddie, Joanne, Saul, Allison Scagliotti, Aaron Ashmore and showrunner Jack Kenny.  The last month to spend the majority of everyday with their Warehouse 13 family. Joanne was the first to break and a helpful audience member ran a package of tissues up to her as she talked about how much the earnest love of the audience for the show meant to her.  Next came Eddie and Joanne loaned him one of her newfound tissues as he thanked Saul, Syfy and everyone for believing in him as the lead of a show.  Saul came next, but he kept his composure a bit better as he reflected on what he considered his best role of his life when he wasn’t even looking for it.  Last, as the panel wrapped, Jack broke as he recited the words to a song that said how much good-bye hurt.

Like they said as they talked in the Indigo Ballroom to a throng of fans, the love they have for each other shows on the screen.  The love the audience has for the actors showed as the applause and cheers rang out to encourage every word of appreciation and gratitude to their fellow Warehouse family members.  To paraphrase Joanne, the audience and the cast shared a love for each other for these great five seasons.

Seeing people that close, that open with emotions for each other made me smile many times and made me think of my best work friend, CJ Bunce.  CJ, thanks for hanging out during lunches, taking me to the Renaissance Faire and dressing me up in a costume, for going to comic book shops, for sharing the opportunity to write and for running around the world (well San Diego and Kansas City) to explore science fiction, fantasy and pop-culture with me.  That is a work friendship for which I am grateful and you and Elizabeth are missed in San Diego this year.  I look forward to seeing you both again next year or as soon as possible.  Though just like with the Warehouse 13 folks, another good-bye in the books will be tough, but oh so worth it.

Happy New Year!!!

So what do we do now?  How about a look at the start dates for our favorite TV shows?  Many are already in progress, like Almost Human, Arrow, Dracula, Grimm, Major Crimes, The Michael J. Fox Show, New Girl, and Sleepy Hollow.  Some don’t have new season premiere dates yet, like Bates Motel, Continuum, Doctor Who, Heroes of Cosplay, Mr. Selfridge, and Warehouse 13.

The most anticipated series is very likely the three-episode third season of Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, finally coming back to PBS this month.

The biggest question is whether Haven will get renewed for a fifth season on Syfy.  The end of Season 4 was really getting better and Syfy just can’t leave us with that cliffhanger finale.

Update yours DVRs!  Here’s what we’re going to be watching in 2014 at borg.com:

Almost Human -  Season 1 continues January 6 on Fox

Arrow – Season 2 continues January 15 on CW

Bates Motel – Season 2 begins in March to A&E

Continuum – renewed for Season 3 but no date yet released by Syfy

Dallas – Season 3 begins February 24 to TNT

Doctor Who – Season 8 begins with new Doctor in second half of 2014 to BBC America

Dracula – Season 1 continues January 3 on NBC

Grimm – Season 3 continues January 3 on NBC

Haven – not yet renewed for a Season 5 by Syfy!

Heroes of Cosplay – renewed for Season 2 but no release date yet by Syfy

Lost Girl – Season 4 begins January 13 on Syfy

Major Crimes – Season 2 continues January 6 on TNT

The Michael J. Fox Show – Season 1 continues January 2 on NBC

Mr. Selfridge – Season 2 begins in January on PBS

Naked Vegas – no announcements for a Season 2 yet from Syfy

New Girl – Season 3 continues January 14 on Fox

Orphan Black – Season 2 begins April 19 on BBC America

Psych – Season 8 begins January 15 on USA

Sherlock – Season 3 begins January 19 on PBS

Sleepy Hollow – Season 1 continues January 13 on Fox

Vikings – Season 2 begins February 27 on History

Warehouse 13 – renewed for final, Season 6, but no release date yet from Syfy

Keep coming back for more reviews here throughout the year on all these shows.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The caretakers of the most dangerous (and strangest) artifacts from history, Pete Lattimer, Myka Bering, Artie Nielsen, and Claudia Donovan, return tonight for the fifth season of Warehouse 13, after a seemingly endless eight-month hiatus.  But the return is bittersweet, as the Syfy Channel’s homegrown, weekly, sci-fi extravaganza was signed for only six more episodes, and not renewed for a seventh season.  Petitions and outcry from the show’s many fans didn’t convince the network to keep the artifact hunting going.

So put on your purple gloves, get your Tesla and your Farnsworth, and get ready for the closing of the famous warehouse that revealed the secrets behind Anne Bonny’s cutlass, Catherine O’Leary’s cowbell, D.B. Cooper’s parachute, Frank Lloyd Wright’s pickup sticks, Houdini’s wallet, Pavlov’s bell, Pasteur’s milk bottle, Mata Hari’s stockings, Nero’s lyre, Paul Tibbets’ binoculars, Nixon’s shoes, Robert the Bruce’s tartan, Scott Joplin’s cigarette case, Sitting Bull’s riding blanket, and U.S. Grant’s flask.

Fan favorite Eddie McClintock, who fans and celebrities alike raved about at this year’s Planet Comicon (even Jonathan Frakes gave McClintock a shout-out for his charm) is reason enough to catch up on past episodes if you haven’t watched the series.  One big question is what this versatile actor will be doing next.

Here is a preview for Season 5 of Warehouse 13:

Warehouse 13 airs tonight at 8 p.m. Central/9 p.m. Eastern on the Syfy Channel.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

It’s finally time to say goodbye to Pete, Myka, Artie, Claudia, and Steve.  The Syfy Channel airs the last Warehouse 13 episode tonight.  What could have had a run for several more years was canned by the Syfy Channel last year, but not before fitting in six final episodes for a short fifth season.

As with the final seasons of other series that knew they were coming to a close, like Burn Notice, Monk, and In Plain Sight, the writing has really kicked in in the last season with Warehouse 13.  The craziest was the fourth episode of the season, “Savage Seduction,” which threw our crew into a cancelled Latin soap opera.  The main cast recited most of their lines in Spanish (subtitled) and the characters sometimes knew–and sometimes didn’t know–they were part of a show, thanks to a pair of Harvey Korman’s cufflinks.  Korman of course had issues staying in character on his many successful (and hilarious) years on The Carol Burnett Show.  Oh, how we will miss those kinds of artifacts!

Last week we saw Claudia’s sister Claire being controlled by a borg lens.  So what will be the very last artifact to be thrown into the silver, purple goo-filled Neutralizer bag?

Here is the first three minutes of tonight’s finale, titled “Endless”–

Warehouse 13 airs tonight at 8 p.m. Central.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The TNT Network announced it has ordered 10 episodes of The Librarians, a new television series spinning off from The Librarian movies.  Christian Kane (Leverage, Angel) and Rebecca Romijn (X-Men, King & Maxwell) are returning to TNT and will lead the cast of the new series along with Lindy Booth (Kick-ass 2, Nero Wolfe, Warehouse 13, Dawn of the Dead, Supernatural) and John Kim (Neighbors, The Pacific).  Stars of the previous stories in The Librarian universe, Noah Wyle (Falling Skies, ER), and comedy icons Bob Newhart (The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, Bob), and Jane Curtin (Saturday Night Live, Kate & Allie, 3rd Rock from the Sun) will reprise their roles in the new series.  Wyle will also continue in his role on TNT’s Falling Skies.

Fans of the Syfy Channel’s now defunct Warehouse 13 may find some familiarity in the world of The Librarians, as the show centers on an ancient organization hidden beneath the Metropolitan Public Library dedicated to protecting an unknowing world from a hidden world of magic.  The team solves mysteries, fights supernatural threats, and recovers powerful artifacts from around the world.  Among the artifacts housed in the Library are the Ark of the Covenant, the Spear of Destiny, the Judas Chalice and Excalibur.  As with Myka and Pete from Warehouse 13, only a person with special skills can protect these artifacts, and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

Along with comedy icons Newhart and Curtin, fan favorite comedic actors John Larroquette (Star Trek III, Stripes, Night Court, Deception) and Matt Frewer (Max Headroom, Orphan Black, Star Trek: TNG) will be regulars on the show.  Larroquette will play Jenkins, overseer of the Librarians, with Frewer an immortal, ancient cult leader named Dulaque.

Here’s more details on the series courtesy of TNT:

For the past 10 years, Flynn Carsen (Wyle) has served as the Librarian.  Prior to taking the job, he was a bookish nerd with 22 academic degrees and absolutely no social skills.  As Librarian, however, he managed to use his extraordinary knowledge, successfully recovering ancient artifacts and, in the process, saving the world from unspeakable evil on more than one occasion.  Over the last decade he’s gone from bookworm to dashing swashbuckler, one of the secret heroes of the hidden world.  As great as Flynn is, the job of Librarian has become more than one person can handle. To aid him in his duties, the Library has recruited four people from around the world, including Eve Baird (Romijn), a highly skilled counter-terrorism agent who is responsible for protecting the group and keeping them all alive; Jake Stone (Kane), an Oklahoma oil worker with an IQ of 190 and an encyclopedic knowledge of art history;  Cassandra (Booth), a quirky young woman with the special gift of auditory and sensory hallucinations linked to memory retrieval, known as synesthesia; and Ezekiel Jones (Kim), a master of new technologies and aficionado of old classic crimes who enjoys playing the role of international man of mystery.

Leverage execs Dean Devlin, John Rogers and Marc Roskin will serve as executive producers along with Wyle. We spoke with  Star Trek: TNG’s and Leverage’s Jonathan Frakes about his involvement with the series earlier this year. He’s directed two episodes for the initial run, and was enthusiastic about working with TNT again.

Look for The Librarians on TNT later this year.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

We’ve seen some celebrities turn to the unlikely medium of comic books to tell their stories recently.  First, we saw Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Darryl McDaniels turn to comic books to tell his own story under the DMC label.  Then Congressman John Lewis wrote a graphic novel about the civil rights movement called March–winning countless awards this year.  Now basketball legend and activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has adapted Arthur Conan Doyle’s Mycroft Holmes into the next best steampunk comic book series.

Mycroft Holmes and the Apocalypse Handbook, co-created with writer Raymond Obstfeld, artist Joshua Cassara, colorist Luis Guerrero, and lettered by Simon Bowland, is the ultimate mash-up of 19th century science fiction and fantasy motifs.  Sherlock’s smarter brother has been kidnapped by Queen Victoria, tasked with deciphering a building full of broken doomsday machines capable of doing the unthinkable.  Think Warehouse 13, if a suave Brit (think James Bond), with a quirky analytical mind (think Doctor Who) is plunged into a world-ending event and an impossible task to solve.

Mycroft Holmes reads like Bill Willingham’s Legenderry–A Steampunk Adventure and Alan Moore’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, only with five issues to speed through the story the action is quick, the dialogue is brief, and the banter is witty and fun.  Abdul-Jabbar, who became a fan of reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories early in his NDA career, grew to become a connoisseur of 19th century fiction including Holmes and his infamous brother, enough to write the novel Mycroft Holmes–A Novel with screenwriter Anna Waterhouse, published last year.   Mycroft Holmes and the Apocalypse Handbook takes Mycroft on a parallel-world adventure from the Mycroft of Abdul-Jabbar’s novel.

The key to the story is “The Apocalypse Handbook” and the role it will play in stopping a terrorist bent on using the weapons.  Written by England’s prime minister, the book includes blueprints from a gathering of a league of “futurists”–science fiction writers Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville (The Last Man), Jane C. Loudon (The Mummy), Samuel Butler (Erewhon), Edward Bellamy (Looking Backward), Marianne Shelley (a Mary Shelley descendant), Jules Verne and Mark Twain–blueprints of the very devices Mycroft must now destroy.  While their technology stands idly by, will their other monstrous, sci-fi creations–like Frankenstein’s monster–suddenly becoming reality, too?

The first two issues of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s Mycroft Holmes and the Apocalypse Handbook are available now at comic book stores everywhere.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

Both were pulled from Special Forces units.  Dakota Prentiss is an ex-Ranger.  She’s tough, rough, crude, and been through it all.  Then new worker Matt Salem is brought onto her security team.  He’s ex-Navy SEAL and she can’t help falling for him, something she’s never quite had time for with her lifetime committed to always fulfilling the mission, and now she’s bound herself for life to a private corporation where you keep secrets or you die.  In Nat Cassidy’s novelization of Mac Rogers’ dramatic podcast series, Steal the Stars, we get a first person account of bad choices that only get worse from Dakota aka “Dak” in a science fiction noir style that takes place on an Earth where corporations have gained far too much power and the CEO of one giant company has the power over life and death.

And it’s also a heist story.  Dak determines the only way out of the mess she has gotten into by violating company fraternization policy with Matt is to steal the very thing her team is guarding–a UFO that crashed a decade ago and the alien inside that may or may not be dead–and sell these secrets to China.  Dak is every bit the tough and in-charge leader like Hannah-John Kamen’s Dutch in the Syfy series Killjoys, including her ability for falling for the next guy who joins her team.  The company follows rigorous protocols in their own variation on Warehouse 13 to maintain the safety of the UFO and its harp-shaped power drive, which they soon learn has power so great whoever controls it could control everything.  The alien inside, called Moss for its slowly diminishing moss-like covering, simply stares off into nothing as if dead.  But why does he still seem to have body heat?

Another entry from The X-Files?  Sure.  It’s also heavily influenced by other alien arrival stories, especially the most recent Oscar-winning film about first contact, 2016’s Arrival, with its focus on the process and set-up for quarantining such a discovery.  Also a mash-up of They Live and Bonnie and Clyde and even Philip K. Dick’s short story “Paycheck,” Steal the Stars pulls bits and pieces of sci-fi from all angles to create a compelling read that will keep you onboard for all of its 416 pages.

Most of the conversational dialogue between characters is good, but Dak’s focus on her passion for young new guy Matt to the exclusion of her career, the associates and co-workers she has grown to trust, and her pre-occupation with sex all take over the novel and may be off-putting to some readers.  Why are all of her thoughts about a guy?  Dak walks the line between ideal badass heroine and a male fantasy of a badass heroine.  But the punchy dialogue and believable blend of military and corporate setting make it easy to understand why the podcast the novel is based on was a success.

Nice twists, an interesting setting, and its ability to draw from several genre tropes will make Steal the Stars a fun read for sci-fi readers.

Steal the Stars will be released Tuesday, November 7, 2017, from Tor Books.  Pre-order a copy now here at Amazon.